MAP05: Vampires (The Box of a Thousand Demons)

MAP05: Vampires is the fifth map of The Box of a Thousand Demons. It was designed by Thelokk and uses the music track "".

Essentials
You enter the map on the outer edge of a large canyon, with a building in the distance - making your way into, and then past that building is your objective.

Grab the super shotgun in front of you, dispatch a few chaingunners and Hell knights, then drop down into the canyon, being mindful of the imp and hitscanner ambushes activated by tripwires. Most directions are barred either by rock formations, or by damaging lava, but moving straight south of the starting point will eventually lead you into the canyon's basin, where a few points of interest are located - a plasma rifle in the dead center of the clearing and, further south, a switch that needs to be activated in order to proceed. Grab the plasma gun and hit the switch, but be prepared for a very large mob of revenants, imps, Hell knight, demons and hitscanners, both on ground level and on the rock formations surrounding it.

Hitting the switch raises a staircase leading to the edge of a moat that surrounds the building: such moat is infested by a large group of demons, as well as two arch-viles. Again, most ways to circumvent the obstacle are barred, and the only viable way forward is to drop into the moat, then either dispatch or bait the enemy forces away from a lift located on the western side of the building, against the moat's inner side.

The building itself is a single, seemingly empty room. Heading indoors, however, will raise a series of five platforms: four smaller ones, atop which one arachnotron each will spawn, and a larger one, atop which a spiderdemon will appear. Imps will also begin pouring in at floor level, severely limiting movement but also providing protection from projectiles. Note that clearing the building is not mandatory: once the ambush is activated you can climb out of the building, and proceed back to the lift you previously rode. From atop it, you will see that to the west a small platform with a berserker has raised from the lava, and can be reached from the top of the lift by straferunning. Use this small platform as a bridge to cross the lava and climb a narrow path leading west, being mindful of yet another hitscanners ambush and a few perched revenants. The path is one-way, and will eventually lead into a waterfall drop that functions as the level's exit.

Secrets

 * 1) Head to the southwest end to get a megasphere. (sector 100)
 * 2) At the exit, lower a wall to the northwest to get a berserk pack. (sector 532)

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on March 20, 2023.

Player spawns
This level contains four spawn points:
 * 1) facing south. (thing 520)
 * 2) facing north-east. (thing 521)
 * 3) facing north-west. (thing 522)
 * 4) facing north-west. (thing 523)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: